Batteries and odd jobs.
30 May 2017 | Bonaire
Bill/ Sunny with some breeze
It's now Monday afternoon and we're hard at work doing small projects all of which need doing. As for our battery charging problem, it's on "hold" as of now. I ran the generator/charger this morning for a couple of hours and then tried to start the engine. No problem, she started right up and ran fine. It helps to have a full battery to start an engine. Then after reading a comment I got from another cruisers website on my problem with the Blue Sea SI-ACR, I started up the generator/charger and made sure a small LED light on the SI-ACR was lit. It was. Took a few seconds to come on but I'm told that's normal till it reads the voltage. I waited a few minutes and then turned off the generator/charger and a couple minutes later, the LED went off, again, that's what it's supposed to do. Now we are monitoring the batteries and it seems that both banks(House and Start) are maintaining their charge. It makes no sense so I'm waiting to hear back from Blue Sea about the problem after sending them two emails over the weekend. At over $200 per battery, I'm in no hurry to run out and lug them back to the boat, put into Puff, lift out of Puff, lower below decks, take out the old ones and install the new. Take the old one to shore and lug them back to Napa. Sure sounds like fun doesn't it? I think waiting a day isn't going to kill me. I figure to start the engine for a while later this afternoon just to make sure every thing is doing what it's supposed to.
The Forespar Motor Mate crane we use for lifting and lowering our outboard has developed a problem that the block and tackle used to move it is getting old and the ball bearings are loose so the fitting needs replacement. You could hear the small little bearings "click" as the sheave rotated. We hiked out to Budget Marine and they had pretty much what we needed($26.35) so I just installed it on the crane. I'd pulled up the directions on how to tread the line through the assorted sheaves and block on the crane and threaded them their way. We'd installed the line a different way when we'd replaced the line on the crane earlier. We'll see how this works. Hopefully we will have less kinks and turns in the line now.
With that done, as I was looking for some hardware earlier in the day, I came across some springs I'd been looking for for a while that will fix one of our blocks on the stern for the spinnaker sheet. These springs keep the block vertical so the line runs better. I'd replace one on the port side years ago and as any good cruiser does, I'd ordered extra with the full knowledge that if one side breaks, the other side will eventually. It's been about five years since the last one broke but I have the spars to replace the broken one. While the block was off getting the spring changed, Tracy took our stainless steel polish and gave it a good polishing. Now she's nice and shiny and all fixed ready for use sometime in the future.
Next, off for the filter for the pump that empties the shower sump in the stern. It's been a while since the screen in it got cleaned. With all the diving we've been doing, we've been taking quite a few showers so it needs to be cleaned more regularly. If the screen gets to clogged up, it will strain the pump and make the fuse for it blow. It's happened before so I now try and clean it more regularly. I note the date on the calendar just so I know when it was last done. Tracy had cleaned under the shower floor grate so even more yuck was in the filter. Ah, the glamorous life of "living the dream!)
It's now Tuesday morning and I was up early to look at the electrical meters for the "house" and "start" battery banks. Both appear to be back to normal with the "start" bank at 12.4 volts and the "house at just about 12 volts. The "house" bank always get more use as everything in the boat draws off it. Our main concern yesterday was the sudden drain on the "start" bank of batteries. No clue as to what happened but all appears to be back to normal. I'm glad we waited on buying the batteries. I'm still planning of doing some electrical checks on the charging system after I got some good advise from the "Cruisers Forum" yesterday. A website that full of answers and where people can post questions(like I did)and get information normally quite quickly. The answers and advice of what to do were on my email screen within a few hours.
Now as to the Forespar Motor Mate and the new block we installed, well it made all the difference in the world in getting the motor off Puff and back into it's brackets on the stern. Tracy can now lift it very easily and quickly. It looks as though the line may not have as many kinks in it as well after getting the motor back on board. While Budget didn't have the exact same block we needed, they had one that would do the job just fine and with some exploring in my "shackle" box(where I keep the odds and ends of the larger block and clips)I found the right clip to attach to the new block that will hold the straps that go around the motor so it can be lifted. Job done.
Today, not sure whats going on. I know we have to go to the marina and pay our mooring fees for our stay here. Not bad at just $10.6 a day but I'd still rather have my Rocna anchor under us instead of sitting on the bow. We may be going in and doing laundry. Haven't done that since we got here and we are starting to run low on clean clothes. Guess we will see.